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Tuesday, 22 March 2016

We’ve been writing in groups using the chrome books to describe our experience using the pizza ovens to cook zucchinis with John. It was tricky to put ourselves in the place of a reporter and not write as “we” all the time. How do you think we did?

Experiment Zucchini!

The day had come, it was time for the zucchini chefs to show their masterpieces.

What could they be cooking? Their ideas emerged and took form onto the table.

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The students were outside by the flaming pizza ovens. The trees shaded them from the searing sun. The sound of the chattering children was carried in the wind.

Time to get cooking! The only ingredients were milk, egg, garlic, cheese, dough, pesto and zucchini. They all chose some different ingredients and made something with it.

The amazing E (a group who all had E in their name) made a Zucchini roll. The ingredients they used were: garlic, cheese, pesto, dough and grated zucchini. It tasted like crispy toast.

It looked like a fluffy cushion of dough.

One group made zucchini pizza. They made a pizza base and put grated zucchini and zucchini juice instead of sauce. As well as a little bit of grated garlic and cheese. Then cooked. It looked some what like a pile of cooked zucchini. It smelt like burnt zucchini. It tasted like zucchini

heaven.

Another group also made zucchini pizza but their idea was to make zucchini bread with cheese on top. Their ingredients were: dough, cheese, garlic, pesto and zucchini. It tasted like salted zucchini on bread - that's only one persons idea. Another student thought it tasted like zucchini that had been rolled in dusty old dirt.

One group’s creation tasted like an omelette because it had lots of eggs in it. They also made one zucchini pie.

In the end, everyone loved their creation and I bet they all had fun making them.

Gabrielle’s literacy group made pizza with John. It was a boiling hot day. First the children got into groups and decided what to make. We were at Worser Bay school in the courtyard, cooking with zucchinis. The zucchinis came from the school garden.

They were the best food ever.

The ingredients were zucchini,milk, olive oil, eggs, dough and cheese. One group made zucchini pizza. Another made zucchini bread, it was wonderful - it tasted like normal bread and you couldn’t even notice the zucchini. The pizza was starting to rise higher and higher. Bubbles in the pizza popped like popcorn in a microwave.

The food was spectacular! When we saw the food rise we wanted to eat it all up. There were zuchinni pizzas, pies,and patties.

The pizza was puffy. We made it like this. First we made the batter, then we patted the dough, then we sprinkled zucchini , Cheese then we put it in the oven. when they were cooked we waited for them to cool down. And then we ate it.

It was the first time for some people to eat zucchini. It was awesome experiment for all of us.

It was awesome. As soon as we walked in our minds were blown by the colourful eye-opening sculptures. It was amazing how people made these wonderful artworks in so many different ways.Kaia - I was astonished by the knitting: it was long, bright pink plastic bags knitted together with massive wooden knitting needles. It made a massive scarf.

Sam Sh - my favourite was the enormous giant drift wood eagle. It inspired me to think about what I can create from driftwood.

Evie - I liked the 'ring my bell' and the 'padlock'. The padlock because I liked looking at it and discovered it was hollow. I liked the bells because they all made different sounds.

Jasper - I really liked the frog because of how it was placed on the side of the stream and how it popped out because of its colour and the Haast eagle because it was made from driftwood.

Flynn - My favourite was the driftwood eagle because it looked exactly like a normal eagle but in a very realistic large version.
Louise - the one that inspired me was the Native Vessel - a long metal stick that came into a blue patterned feather.

Teddy - I liked all the sculptures because they all inspired me because they were all really cool. I'd like to make something like all of them.

Oto - I loved all of the sculptures, they really inspired me to make great artworks.

Milla - I liked the red lock and the keys because it was a bright red colour that really attracted my eye. I liked how the locks were hollow. It was about half the size of me.

We had an idea that we should make metal discs that represent every one of us at Worser Bay school and hang them from a tree as a sign of our community. We're interested in making some driftwood sculptures too, and maybe some sculptures from clay or another material.

Sam Sh, Oto, Teddy: Since we got back we've been wondering about creating a nature pole from scrap metal (to make the flax), wood and something to make a tui out of. It was really cool how we included each other's ideas to come up with this awesome nature sign idea. We're wondering how we would curve the metal to make it look like flax. If you're reading this and have some skills in this area we'd love to have your help.

Great scientists are curious about the world they live in. Getting into the rock pools on the edge of the Island Bay Marine Reserve our students made the types of discoveries great scientists with their sharpened senses and substantial powers of observation might make. A very aggressive creature: was it guarding its corner of the rock pool or was it hunting prey when it raised its two pronged pincers and attacked?

Can you see it in the rock pool? It is actually staring at the photographer!

We asked Christine from the Marine Centre what it was but she said she had never before seen anything like it. Have we discovered a new genus? Can you help us to identify this rock pool inhabitant?

Friday, 18 March 2016

Drumming has begun with Andreas Leper. Armed with an amazing assortment of drums from the four corners of the world and irrepressible humour and energy, Andreas introduced the students to the world of rhythm. And what an incredible sound they make together! We will be working over the next ten weeks to develop and then hone our drumming skills.

Thursday, 17 March 2016

Today we were fortunate to have a great calm day to compare Island Bay beach and rock pools to the more local conditions we've already explored at Worser Bay and Breaker Bay. There was quite a big difference in what we found - many more varieties of snails and some shrimp, even a small dead octopus, but almost no starfish at all! There were also much fewer varieties of seaweed, and no sea lettuce. We were wondering why we found different things here.

We were able to get hands on with many sea creatures we'd seen a little of already and learn more about them by touching the creatures we've been researching up close to see some of their features. Did you know starfish have five eyes at the end of their arms - they sure don't look like ours though!

We explored the beach to learn a little about the food chain on the beach especially looking at how seaweed, sandhoppers and crabs affect life in the sea. It's all connected... We also looked inside bull kelp and saw how it's internal structure has lots of air packed in a way so it can float. This allows the kelp to reach towards the light to that it can get it's energy from the process of photosynthesis, just like plants do on land.

Thanks again to those parents who were able to support our trip by joining us. We're all really excited at the thought of coming back towards the end of the year to do some snorkelling here.

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

You should have seen the children rush into their togs and head helter skelter towards the Bridge of Doom at free time. It was truly inspiring, I knew something exciting was in the air. Such bravery, determination, support, laughter, whoops of delight, feelings of accomplishment, more laughter...

The Bridge is very wobbly, particularly towards the end as I found out when no one was watching. Most of the campers had found that out already, some conquering it easily, others trying gallantly but ending up in the mud.

Watch this slide presentation to see some of the children at work! All persevered really well - congratulations to all - A for effort!

Monday, 14 March 2016

(We imagined that we were reporters from the New York Times reporting on the Zucchini cooking at Worser Bay School.)

Reporter from the New York Times on the Zucchini Phone

Smoke rising up, drifting across the playground, children chattering excitedly, a delicious aroma filling the air. Flames flying high, the smell of charcoal, so strong and sweet you just want to eat.

A pizza oven in the corner of the courtyard has a group of students standing around it. They have their heads down, talking.

Kids run around the corner, there is cheering in the distance. What are they cheering for? What’s that smell? They come back with green around their mouths.

“John the Zucchinis are sizzling!”

“Let me see,”

“I hope these are going to be nice - I mean we did invent the recipe.”

“Eh, they’ll be fine.”

It's exciting and surprising what's cooking them. A pair of flame powered pizza ovens, mounted on a small structure holding wood. The one that is active is like a furnace. You don’t see that every day.

Today the senior students are cooking up a storm, and the ovens are attracting a lot of attention from the junior pupils. There is discussion, preparing, and cooking galore.

It all started with the one question: What can you do with a Zucchini?

And, Zucchini fritters! The only thing they didn’t consider was how a Zucchini could be used as a weapon.

Did you know that Zucchinis are biologically fruits but are culinarily treated as vegetables.

Also not many people know that zucchinis can kill people. However, if you have particularly bitter zucchini, STOP EATING IT IMMEDIATELY! The poison has a bitter taste so if it is bitter there is still hope because you are still alive to taste it!

Thursday, 3 March 2016

Over the past week there has been lots of discussion about the funny looking blobs found at out local beaches. There was a lot of debate about what they could be. This led us to the conclusion that we needed to do some research. Luckily for us there was an article in the newspaper this week which we read in our reading groups. This led to more of our own research and the following reports.

Salp by Chester,Hayley, Blake,Caitlyn, Alex B, Sam Sh,Thomas Jackson There has been a new sea animal that has been in Wellington beaches for the last month. People have thought it is sea lice, fish eggs, baby jellyfish and plankton. Well the the name is salp.Salp can come in chains or single and can be found at Karaka Bay,Worser Bay and Scorching Bay,Eastbourne and all the other local beaches. Salp is completely harmless so you can still swim in Wellington beaches.

Salp is a filter feeder that feeds on plant plankton. Salp swim by jetting out water and is related to fish. It's also very common in Antarctica and is the most efficient in the animal kingdom. Its scientific name is Salpidae.The average size for a salp is a 2 to 7 mm blob.

Salp

By Oto Betty Meg Emma R Louise Sophia Hugo M Emma M

Have you spotted the small jelly like creatures at the beach?

Some people call them jelly fish and others call them sea lice. But they are really just salp and are completely harmless. Salp are a blobby animal with a black dot in the middle. The ones in Wellington are the size of a fingernail and are a colony of animals distantly related to fish.They slowly move through the water by forming a chain then sucking in water through one end then blowing it out the other end; this is how they move and filter feed.Salp can be found all over the globe and can be as big as four inches long! You often find salp close to floating seaweed because they feed on plant planton. Salp is common around Antarctica. Salp were first discovered in 1982.

On Wednesday the second of March Worser Bay School senior students went down to the

beach to see what they could see, in the sea, or more specifically in the rock pools and on the

sandy shore.

They began by putting a marker in the sand to see how far the tide would come in. Unfortunately that failed because it fell over; the waves knocked it down. They were too strong and the tide was coming in.

There was a big swell coming in from the Cook Straight through the mouth of the harbour. It caused massive waves to be crashing on shore. Seaweed, thrown on the beach was clumped up, tangled in large piles.

Sadly the students couldn’t go sailing or kayaking. As an alternative though they gathered words for poetry writing, went swimming and boogie boarding. People were boogie boarding happily, there was screaming and joyful laughter.Waves were crashing on the sand, making water fly. People were flying through the air and then falling on the seaweed stack, then would falling about with laughter.

There is always so much happening that sometimes it’s difficult to keep up so to assist you at home and so that you can support what’s happening at school with some of your own home based learning fun, here is a brief rundown of the work due and the activities in progress.

Letter to the teacher. Most students have completed this now but some need a little more time to respond to feedback, correct spelling or answer a few more of the questions contained in the teacher letter. If you need help here is the link to the Teacher's Letter (questions highlighted in red)

Research about a creature which lives in the tidal zone. We have been doing lots of finding out but many students could do with some extra time reading about their Chosen creatures, online or in books. It is always helpful to discuss text to help deepen understanding.

Marine Metre Squared. One of the really exciting things we are involved with is helping Otago University collect data about the species living in the tidal zone. We have begun doing this, having had some practice on our Seatoun Beach walk and the yesterday at Worser Bay Beach. We will give our kids more opportunities to do this but it would be a fantastic thing to do as a family also. For further information check out the website https://www.mm2.net.nz/

Preparing for camp. Please let kids pack their own bags. They need to know what they have with them so they can learn to take responsibilities.

Everybody knows that the beach is full of treasures. We are looking at all of the species of shellfish, seaweed and plants that we have found washed up on the beach. We are observing closely and beginning to think like scientists.

We spent FOUR WEEKS working on these paintings which were inspired by Picasso. The first sessions we spent sketching. We sketched fast, with our left hands, upside down and with our eyes closed. We tried to use a thousand lines, loose hands, not to be precious, not to worry, to be relaxed and view the subject through new eyes; capturing what we saw, not what we thought the subject should look like.

Then we chopped up our drawings! What? Chopped them up? Yes, we chopped them up and rearranged them, composing the picture so that it was nicely balanced.

Next we added some colour with pastel and dye, a simple combination with two or three matching colours.